Rainer the richer

Rainer Schuettler's routine five-week off-season preparation paid big dividends on Wednesday when he overpowered Argentine 10th seed David Nalbandian to reach his first Grand Slam tennis semi-final at the Australian Open.

The German 31st seed swarmed over last year's Wimbledon finalist with his superior court coverage, fitness and groundstrokes to pull off a merited 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 win in 2hr 18min on Rod Laver Arena.

Schuettler's reward was his first Grand Slam semifinal on Friday against either Moroccan 18th seed Younes El Aynaoui or American ninth seed Andy Roddick. El Aynaoui and Roddick play later Wednesday.

"Of course, I'm surprised, but I have so far played a pretty good tournament and I deserve to be in the semi-final," Schuettler said.

Schuettler's five weeks slaving away under a Taekwondo fitness coach had him in superb physical condition when he arrived in Australia early in the new year.

He reached the quarterfinals in Madras and semi-finals in Sydney before embarking on his unbeaten run to the Open semi-final.

Nalbandian looked a tired and beaten man as 26-year-old Schuettler roared through the final set without losing a game in 32 minutes.

"I played pretty good in the third set and in the fourth it was mentally tough for him because I got the early break," said Schuettler.

Schuettler, inspired as a nine-year-old by the Wimbledon exploits of German tennis great Boris Becker, has steadily worked his way through the rankings from 111 at the end of 1998 to 33 last year and is rated second in Germany behind Tommy Haas.

"I start preparing for the new season at the end of November, so I like to have five weeks every year to work really hard with a fitness coach," he said.

"Over the last two years I've been doing something a little different with a Taekwondo teacher, so I practice a lot and that's why I'm always fit at the beginning of the year."

Schuettler was far more consistent on the bigger points than lethargic Nalbandian, who was suffering the lingering effects of his five-set fight with Roger Federer in the previous round.

Nalbandian levelled at a set-all, but he was swamped by the eager German in the third and fourth sets and lost his last five service games.

Schuettler is the fifth German man to reach the semi-finals at the Australian Open in the post-1969 Open era.

The others were Karl Meiler (1973), Boris Becker (1991 and 1996), Michael Stich (1993) and Haas (1999 and 2002).

Schuettler will be aided in his coming semi-final by the comparative short time he has been on court.

He has reserves of unspent energy having been on court for just seven hours 53 minutes to reach the last four, but he received a third round walkover when Marat Safin withdrew with a wrist injury.

It was dismal ending for what had been a promising 10 days for Nalbandian.

Nalbandian, who made the tennis world sit up when he made last year's Wimbledon final against Australian world number one Lleyton Hewitt, said the Federer win had taken its toll.

"I was a little tired from the match the other day," he said.

"I was trying to take my chances at the beginning of the third set, but I didn't really play well there."